Overview

The 16S rRNA gene has played an essential role in bacterial taxonomy by providing a universally applicable phylogenetic framework. However, this single gene contains only about 1,500 bp which inheritably limits the resolution of the analysis. Here, we present the set of bacterial core genes that covers all phyla, which we named UBCG (up-to-date bacterial core gene). The current UBCG set was calculated using complete genomes of 1,492 species covering 28 phyla, consisting of 92 genes [Learn more].

The package provides the following features:

Extraction of UBCGs from genome assemblies

Multiple-alignment of 92 gene sequences

Concatenation of 92 gene sequences

Filtering positions of multiple-alignments

Phylogenetic analysis using RAxML and FastTree

Calculation of Gene Support Index (GSI) which indicates how many genes support the branch in the concatenated phylogenetic tree (named UBCG tree)

Developers

Seongin Na

Yeong Ouk Kim

Jongsik Chun

Jongsik Chun is a professor at Seoul National University and specializes in microbial evolution, bioinformatics, and genomics. He has been a trustee of Bergey’s Manual Trust since 2010 and is also the founder of ChunLab, Inc.